1. Field of Invention:
This invention relates generally to crib or bed sheets, and in particular to a disposable fitted sheet that snugly conforms to a standard crib or bed mattress and is constituted by material having an absorbent top layer laminated to a liquid-impermeable backing film.
2. Prior Art:
Infants and very young children are normally bedded down in a crib which is a bedstead enclosed by high slatted sides. The crib is provided with a mattress which is protectively covered by a crib sheet. Because an infant or young child occupying the crib will almost invariably wet or soil the crib sheet, the usual practice is to interpose a rubber mat between the crib sheet and the mattress to maintain the latter in a clean and sanitary condition.
Because the crib sheet is often soiled, it must be repeatedly washed, and the rubber mat must also be cleaned. The ordinary crib sheet is fabricated of cotton or other natural or synthetic textile material, or a composite thereof. In fitting the sheet to the mattress, one must manipulate the sheet to form corners which conform to the corners of the mattress.
The same problem arises with ordinary bed sheets used in hospitals, nursing homes and in other situations where the occupant of the bed is incontinent and therefore soils the sheet covering the bed mattress.
In a crib, the mattress is below the level of the slatted sides even when the sides are lowered; hence it is more difficult to form crib sheet corners than when forming corners on ordinary bed sheets. To overcome this difficulty, it is known to provide crib sheets as well as bed sheets with preformed corners, as disclosed, for example, in the Bogle U.S. Pat. No. 4,161,044. In making such fitted sheets, Bogle cuts a sheet to create a main rectangular panel and side and end panels which depend from the main panel and are sewn thereto to form right angle corners. The manufacture of such a fitted sheet requires cutting and sewing operations and is therefore relatively expensive.
The main difficulty with conventional crib sheets is that such sheets are permeable to liquid, and one must, therefore, after each use, strip the sheet off the mattress and clean it for reuse. When the infant or child occupying the crib is ill, then conventional washing procedures may not be sufficient to insure sterility and avoid possible reinfection because of inadequately cleaned crib sheets. It is for this reason that in a serious illness, even though conventional crib sheets are relatively costly, the usual practice is to dispose of the sheets after a single use.
Another problem encountered with crib sheets arises when one is traveling with a child. While many hotels and motels supply cribs having mattresses and crib sheets, one has no idea who previously occupied the crib, or whether the crib equipment is sanitary. Hence the better practice in this situation is to bring along fresh and clean crib sheets and to thereafter dispose of these crib sheets. But the cost of conventional crib sheets is such as to render this practice extravagant, particularly if more than one child is involved.